Alphabet Soup: Just a break
by Windfighter
Summary: It's not the fall that hurts you, it's the landing. (Prequel to Abasia)


Another one for the Alphabet Soup, and this one is a prequel to the first one I did: Abasia

Because I can't stop torturing Emil.

 **Warnings:** Blood, broken bones, PAIN, Danish medic, people understanding each other

* * *

Emil was flying. No, not flying. He was falling. Emil was falling. An oversized jaw looked down at him from the top of the building, where he had been just moments ago. Lalli swished past quickly, his hand grasping at air. Emil tried to twist, tried to grab on to something, but everything disappeared, was too far out of reach.

And then Pain.

Emil heard a crunching sound as his back hit the rocks that used to be the wall. Pain shot out from his back, travelled to his brain and back down to his mouth which let out a scream that could wake every troll in the area if they hadn't already been woken up by the ruckus Emil and the troll had made in the building. He stopped screaming, clenched his teeth. Would he die? There was so much pain, he was certain he was going to pass out. And then a troll would come, lured there by his scream. He hoped for it, for anything that would end the pain.

"Emil!"

Lalli's voice. Lalli's hands on his shoulders. Emil's eyes searched for Lalli's, shifted to the building. He couldn't see the troll. He opened his mouth, wanted to ask if Lalli had taken it out, but only a painful gasp came out and his hand gripped Lalli, Lalli's hand gripped his.

"Shit, Emil, what happened?"

Sigrun cleaned the knife on her clothes, stopped behind Lalli and looked at Emil.

"nn", Emil answered, clenched his teeth again.

"Are you okay?"

Lalli stepped to the side and Sigrun crouched next to Emil, tried to catch his eyes.

"Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere", Emil whimpered.

It was a lie, he realized. His fingers gripped Sigrun's sleeve, pulled at it and she leaned closer.

"My legs... Sigrun, I can't..."

His breathing got shorter, then pain shot up from his back again and he let go of Sigrun, closed his eyes and clenched his his jaw shut to keep the scream inside.

"I'm... I'm getting Mikkel", there was worry in Sigrun's voice. "Just... stay there. Don't move. Like, at all. Lalli, keep him safe. Do you understand?"

Emil opened his eyes slightly, saw the determined look on Lalli's face and heard Sigrun's quick steps as she ran.

"Will be okay", Lalli said.

Emil didn't believe him. Nothing that caused this much pain could ever be okay. He whimpered again, looked towards Lalli.

"It hurts."

Lalli patted his shoulder, his eyes peeled the horizion. Emil closed his eyes again.

"Talk to me."

Silence.

"Please."

More silence.

"I need something to get my mind off the pain."

Hesitation. The sound of gravel under Lalli's feet and then quiet words reached Emil's ears. He had to strain himself to hear them. Finnish, words about the previous expedition. The one last year. Emil didn't understand them all, but he tried to grasp them anyway. Because Lalli didn't just say things, his words _meant_ something.

"Beasts", Lalli noted after a while.

Lalli's voice had that slightly worried tone Emil had just learned to pick up and he looked at Lalli, who was getting up on his feet again. Emil tried to sit up, but pain blinded him and he stopped moving again. Lalli's hand on his shoulder, but it disappeared just as quickly. The sound of battle reached Emil's ears, he heard Sigrun's battlecry and then Mikkel's bear-like voice.

"Can you feel this?"

"Feel what?"

"Yes or no, Emil."

"No?"

"How about this?"

Emil lifted his head, tried to see what Mikkel was doing, but the awkward position he had landed in made it impossible and he let his head fall down again. It was pounding anyway.

"No..."

"Hmm..."

Mikkel stood up again, looked at Emil and Emil had to look away.

"It's too early to make a diagnosis, it might just be swelling. Does anything else hurt?"

"I fell off a building", Emil whimpered. " _Everything_ hurts."

"Fair enough", Mikkel's voice sounded entertained. "I will examine you more closely when we get back to safety."

Emil didn't answer, listened as the sound of battle slowly died out around them. Heavy footsteps approaching them, light ones following close behind.

"What's the verdict?" Sigrun asked.

"It is definately a break", Mikkel said, "but I can not say exactly how bad. Give me a hand here."

Mikkel crossed Emil's arms over his chest, before he and Sigrun and lifted him off the debris he was lying on. Emil let out a new scream as pain flared up again and then he was placed on something soft on the ground. Mikkel, Sigrun and Lalli looked around, waited for movements in the shadows incase new beasts had been lured there while Emil tried to will the worst pain away. Then he was off the ground, lifted once again by Sigrun and Mikkel but this time positioned onto something that didn't give him any extra pain.

Everything still hurt though. He knew they tried to be careful but everytime the stretcher moved unevenly it sent fresh jolts of pain through his body. It disorted his sense of time and it felt like years before they arrived at the tank. Tuuri was ushered into the front of the car and Lalli follwed her while Mikkel and Sigrun brought Emil into the bed chamber. They placed the stretcher on Emil's bed, before Mikkel disappeared and Sigrun sat down on the other bed.

"He said it's a break", Emil stated.

He didn't mean to sound whimpy, but it came out that way. Sigrun looked at him, smiled goofily like she always did.

"Don't worry, broken bones heal."

"I know", Emil looked away, "but..."

"No buts", Sigrun interrupted. "It'll be okay, you just have to stay positive."

 _How?_ Emil thought but decided not to ask. Mikkel returned with a couple of pills he forced Emil to take.

"It will help with the pain."

Emil doubted anything would, but he followed the medic's orders and swallowed them. Mikkel moved down to his legs again and Emil saw his boots hit the floor, his socks. Pain flared up again when Mikkel started to pull down his pants, but faded just as quickly. Sigrun frowned slightly.

"That's not very good, is it?"

"It does not mean anything, Sigrun."

"What?" Emil asked.

"It is nothing to worry about."

"Stop treating me like a child, what isn't very good?"

Emil lifted his head, saw the pants in Mikkel's hands, saw the large stain of blood on them.

"You, uhm... _leaked_ a little", Sigrun said and looked away.

Emil's eyes noticed the yellow stain that went down the legs of the pants. Blood rushed to his cheeks and his head flopped down again, he tried placing his hands over his face to hide but pain shot up from his right arm and he screamed instead. He wanted to sit up, see what was wrong, tried to, but the pain in his back was intense, and Sigrun was quickly by his side, pressed her hands to his shoulders to keep him from moving.

"I told you not to move."

Emil's breathing was short, his eyes darted around the room, unable to focus on anything but wanted to find something to take his mind off the pain.

"You fell off a freaking _building_ , Emil."

Like he didn't know. Mikkel sat down on the bed Sigrun had just left and smiled towards Emil. Emil's eyes glued themselves to the Dane, like he was the only stable point in the room. Emil wasn't sure he could trust his smile.

"It is nothing to feel embarrassed about, Emil, it is not your fault."

"I'm..." Emil tried getting controll back over his breathing. "I'm an adult, I don't wet myself."

"You are an adult who just broke his back and momentarily has no control over the muscles below the break. It is not your fault."

"I guess..."

Emil's blush returned and he decided to just get the embarrassment out already.

"It'll happen again, won't it? And you'll have to..."

He couldn't finish the question. Mikkel got up, patted his shoulder and started unbuckling Emil's belt.

"It is okay, I am the oldest of six siblings, I am used to things like this. How is the pain?"

"Duller."

Sigrun let go of his shoulders and Mikkel unzipped the coat and pulled off Emil's gloves. Emil flinched as Mikkel pulled off the right one, then he helped pulling his left arm out of the coat but Mikkel stopped him when he made a move to try the right one.

"It might be broken as well, you should not move it."

"You did."

"Indeed I did and I apologize for my mistake. Sigrun, be a dear and give us a hand here. I'm going to lift him up, you just need to carefully pull the coat off. Can you do that?"

"Pff, what do you think I am?"

Mikkel didn't answer and Sigrun rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I can."

"Good. Emil, this will hurt, but it is for the best."

Emil took a deep breath, closed his eyes and nodded. There was a slight jolt of pain as Mikkel slid his arm in under Emil's back and another when he was lifted off the mattress. The coat was pulled off, there was a light thud as it fell to the floor and then he was back on the mattress.

"Please don't do that again", he whimpered.

"We do need to take of your shirt as well."

"Please don't."

"And I do need to actually have a look at your back to judge how bad it is."

Emil whimpered again.

"I will not be able to see precisely how damaged it is, you would need an x-ray for that, but I should be able to make a temporary diagnosis and determine what treatment you need until we get back to civilization. And", he glanced towards the bloody coat in Sigrun's hands, "judging by the state of your clothes you need to get washed off as well."

Another whimper. Emil's cheeks were burning.

"I can have a look at your arm before we do that if you prefer."

Emil didn't know what alternative he wanted to go with, but he nodded and Mikkel carefully rolled up his sleeve. The pain wasn't as sharp as it had been and Emil was thankful that whatever Mikkel had given him seemed to be working, but he still gritted his teeth against the pain that came from Mikkel handling his arm. Mikkel didn't ask anything, but seemed to come to a conclusion anyway. Emil took a shaky breath as Mikkel let go and rolled down the sleeve again. He didn't ask, he didn't want to know. Sigrun asked instead.

"So? What's wrong?"

"There are a few fractures in his hand, all stable, and another fracture in his radius and his ulna..."

"In people-speech, please."

"His forearm. They simply need to be kept stable and should heal well on their own. Emil, are you ready now?"

Emil shook his head.

"Do it anyway. Just get it over with."

Mikkel nodded, turned to Sigrun again and told her to heat up some water. Mikkel unzipped his shirt, lifted him into a sitting position so he could pull it off and then laid him down again. Emil felt his eyes getting wet, but ignored it and watched as Mikkel gathered his clothes and left the room. He stared at the ceiling, waited. Pulled his fingers through his hair. Moved his feet a little. Tried to at least, he couldn't feel them actually moving. Whatever he was lying on felt wet against his back and he wanted to roll off it, but couldn't. Mikkel returned after what felt like hours carrying a first aid-bag and a bucket of steaming water.

"I will try to do this quickly as to not cause you any extra pain", he said as he put the stuff down on the floor.

Emil nodded, there wasn't anything he could say, and Mikkel started by wrapping his hand and arm, making sure Emil couldn't move it. Then he rolled Emil over to his side and went to cleaning his back. Emil closed his eyes, tried not to wince when Mikkel touched him.

"Are you doing okay?"

Emil shook his head.

"I am almost done."

Emil heard the cloth drop into the bucket and then Mikkel's hands were touching his back. They were strong, determined, hot and rough and Emil wanted to pull away so they'd stop causing him pain and then it was over. Mikkel taped something to his back, wrapped him in bandages to hold it still and then called for Sigrun who helped move him over to the other bed. Emil made the mistake of glancing towards his own bed, saw it covered with quite a lot of his own blood and he had to look away again. Sigrun put a blanket over him, ruffled his hair and Mikkel packed his bag before turning to Emil.

"You should try and get some rest. Let me know when the painkillers wear off."

Emil nodded. Mikkel gathered the bloody sheets and left the room, followed by Sigrun. Emil could still hear their voices.

"So how bad was it?" Sigrun whispered, for once showing the tact everyone thought she lacked.

"It is... pretty bad", Mikkel answered. "We need to call the base, see if we can cut the expedition short. He requires surgery and I am not trained to perform that. I would only further injure his spine if I tried it."

Emil took a shaky breath, glanced at the bed above him. He heard the side door open, heard light steps enter the room. The door to the bedroom closed and Emil turned his face from the wall, saw Lalli sit down on the edge of the other bed.

"What can we do 'til then?" Sigrun's voice cut through the now closed door.

Lalli pulled his fingers through Emil's hair and Emil's shoulders shook, he took a shaky breath and tears started building up in his eyes.

"Keep him stationary", Mikkel answered. "If he move around..."

Their voices disappeared as they exited the tank and closed the door and Emil looked at Lalli, grabbed the hand that was brushing through his hair.

"I'm scared", he confessed.

He didn't know what he wanted Lalli to do about it, wasn't sure there even was anything the other could do. Lalli patted his shoulder, didn't smile.

"It will be okay."

"What if it won't?"

"Tuuri survived last year, you'll survive this. It will be okay. We'll help."

"I... Thanks."

Emil tried to smile, then turned back towards the wall. It wouldn't be okay.


End file.
